Joe Knollenberg

Joseph Kastl "Joe" Knollenberg (28 November 1933-6 February 2018) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R) from Michigan's 11th district from 3 January 1993 to 3 January 2003 (succeeding Robert W. Davis and preceding Thaddeus McCotter) and from the 9th district from 3 January 2003 to 3 January 2009 (succeeding Dale Kildee and preceding Gary Peters).

Biography
Joseph Kastl Knollenberg was born in Mattoon, Illinois on 28 November 1933, and he graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1955. He served in the US Army from 1955 to 1957 as a corporal in West Germany, and he then spent more than three decades as an insurance agent. From 1978 to 1982, he chaired the Oakland County Republican Party, and he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Michigan's 11th district in 1993. His voting record was conservative, as he supported NAFTA, opposed George W. Bush's steel tariffs, and opposed the 2008 bailouts during the Great Recession. In 2008, he was defeated for re-election by the Democrat Gary Peters, with his vote against the Children's Health Insurance Program destroying his chances at winning. He died from Alzheimer's disease at a Troy, Michigan care facility in 2018 at the age of 84.